Coupons Really Work!

I bought all of this for $25.00! That's an average of .50 cents an item. Thanks Stephanie for cluing me in to coupons and thanks Tracy for showing me the Grocery Smarts website. Here's some of my other favorite sites to learn about good deals. They are Utah/Idaho based, but I'm sure other states have their own blogs going. Click on the names to go to the sites.

Utah Deal Diva

Krazy Coupon Lady

Pinching Your Pennies

A Few Glimpses of Summer

Erin and Kevin were two of 7,000 performers at the Conference center for the Draper Temple Celebration. Our stake did a 20's dance. The youth spent months practicing and the results were spectacular.

Ashley and Matt's wedding was a another highlight.

No, Rachel and Camille are not on a lake or a pond....

it rained so much in June that our subdivision's water retaining area was filled up several times. Kevin took the rowboat out one night when the water was overflowing into the street.

Locks of Love

Camille took the plunge a few weeks ago and had her hair cut much shorter. We donated her ponytail to Locks of Love, an organization that makes wigs for children who have lost their own hair.

Look at all of that pretty blondness.

She can spare 10 inches.

The cut!

It took a while to hack all of that thick hair off.

How cute!

Cooking Disasters

I have burned many pans in my life, but never one beyond repair. Usually a little soak with baking soda and a good scrubbing will take care of the problem. However, this pan was way beyond repair. Steel wool didn't even touch it! I left the rice on way too long and went to do something--probably computer related. Did you ever notice how the computer sucks up your time? You sit down for 5 minutes and 2 years later you look up to find that you've missed your child's graduation. Anyway, after 3 days of soaking and 10 minutes of massive scrubbing, this is what the pan looked like.

Shortly after I killed the pan, this marvelous contraption caught my eye at Costco. A rice cooker. I always believed they were a waste of money. Why did anyone need a whole separate appliance just to cook rice? But this one could steam veggies AND cook the ever difficult brown rice. With visions of healthiness, I bought it. I have yet to steam veggies or cook brown rice, but we no longer live in fear of the aroma of burned white rice permeating through the house. I love that I can turn the thing on and the food cooks without any more help from me. If only someone could invent a garden that grew that way. Just plant the seeds, walk away, come back and eat.

This just proves my theory that all problems can be solved at Costco.

Alaska-Part 4

In the ranger station in Talkeetna they had a display of climbing boots used to climb Denali. We were on the plane with a lady who was going to climb the mountain this season. Her boots looked a lot different than these older versions.

We happened to catch the mountain at a time when we could see the top. However, our cameras had a hard time capturing it. I adjusted this picture as much a possible to show it. If the clouds hadn't moved in, I think my dad and Curt would have hopped on a plane for a tour of the summit.

How's this for 10:30 at night? I kept wondering why the roads weren't crowded. I had to keep reminding myself of how late it was.

Alaska-Part 3

In Skagway we rented a car and drove 70 miles into the Yukon. Pictures don't do it justice. How the gold rushers ever made it up carrying their 1 ton of supplies is amazing.

Emerald Lake...that is the true color (and my real hair).

We took a dirt road over to the bay next to Skagway near the townsite of Dyea...a town as big as Skagway during the gold rush.

Glacier Bay. I love, love, the color of Glacier blue. I tried to find something to match it to take home as a souvenir. The closest I could come was blue topaz earrings in the ship's gift shop. I have furniture that cost less than those earrings, so they stayed on the ship.

Alaska-Part 2

Ketchikan was fun. Curt and I took a tour of Dolly's House while my mom posed outside. Dolly was a "business woman" there for several years. When she died her house and belongings were sold intact. So it ended up being a tour of an antique house...right up my alley!

See nothing provocative here.

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

That beautiful blue sky was typical of our trip. Amazing!